(13 November 2019) – The rural citizens-science-policy hub, SHERPA, had its kick-off meeting on 21-22 October. One of 17 partners, AEIDL is in charge of stakeholder engagement and communications.
SHERPA (Sustainable Hub to Engage into Rural Policies with Actors) is a four-year project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and is coordinated by ECORYS Brussels. AEIDL will be leading the work on stakeholder engagement, communications and dissemination and contribute to the rest of the activities of the project with its expertise on rural development.
The project aims at engaging citizens, stakeholders, scientists, and decision-makers in formulating recommendations with the ambition to redefine European development policies and the research agenda for rural areas. The interaction between research, policy and citizens will take place in up to 40 Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) set up in 20 Member States and in a MAP at EU level.
The SHERPA rural citizens-science-policy hub will contribute to policy development in three areas: providing inputs for the design of future research policies; supporting the implementation of policies relevant to rural areas in the 2021-2027 programming period; helping set the direction of rural policies in the next programming period (after 2027).
A key outcome of the project will be the development of position papers that will provide policy recommendations on specific thematic areas, on the basis of previous research and the local input of the MAPs. By uniting 17 partners from all over Europe, SHERPA will build strong capacities in the field – inspiring for future engagement and evidence-based policy-making processes.
During the kick-off meeting, the MAPs of the project expressed the interest to work on a variety of policy issues related to service provision and well-being, climate change, digitisation, sustainability and agriculture.